The Rule of Four

Rating:
Summary: More like "Raiders" than "Da Vinci"
Review: I can see where some would compare this to "The Da Vinci Code," but for me it was more like "Raiders of the Lost Ark." Actually it was a combination of those two with some Umberto Eco thrown in for good measure. It's basically the story of four Princeton guys, and the narrator is the son of a scholar who has made it his life's work to study the book they're all trying to decipher (don't ask me to spell it here). There's a little of everything in this Caldwell/Thomason collaboration (as there is in the book they're studying) and you won't be wanting for something to keep the pages turning, but "Da Vinci Code" it isn't. Seemingly well written with some good twists and turns, I'd recommend it, along with two other books: "Birth of Venus" and "Bark of the Dogwood," both of which are excellent and on the same level as this one.

Rating:
Summary: Don't believe the Hype!
Review: All the advance word was that this book would be the next "Da Vinci Code," even better. Well, don't believe the hype. This is a first novel and it shows. This is a freshmen effort with all the weaknesses one expects from new authors. There is nothing special about this book. "The Da Vinci Code" has been a bestseller for over a year now, "The Rule of Four," once word gets out will be lucky to last a month! I was very disapointed by this book.

Rating:
Summary: The next big thing...
Review: The only thing negative anyone will have to say about this book is that it is "a lot like the Da Vinci Code." I think such a statement does this book a disservice.

In fact, it is much BETTER than the Da Vinci Code. Yes it is as engaging as Dan Brown's work, but it happens to be much better written, at times even lyrical. It is also more than just a suspense story. The Rule of Four is a story about friendship and growing up, about making choices, and about history. The historical knowledge Caldwell and Thomason possess is truly impressive, and they do a wonderful job of leaving the reader feeling enlightened and entertained.

A first rate novel that you too will want to recommend to your friends.

Rating:
Summary: Very questionable choices on authors' part
Review: One of the biggest obstacles to my enjoying the novel, in retrospect, is the cognitive dissonance created by setting up a mystery of such scope in the mundane settings of an Ivy league campus in late 20th century. Not that it's so intrinsically implausible that our four frat-boy type protagonists on their way to Manhattan investment banking and dot-com jobs would be involved in something like the events of the novel, but descriptions of paintball wars in the steam tunnels and the nude Olympics detract from the atmosphere that could be created to serve the mystery better. I can't help thinking that the overall esthetics of the novel would improve, the effect less jarring, if the authors had created a totally fictional setting, or set it in an earlier time (so that we are at least spared the reminder that all the events happen while the last episode of Seinfeld was on). Using the "senior thesis deadline" context to introduce some element of urgency also seems misguided, given the progress that Paul had made by the time the events in the novel begin. Furthermore, the riddles and the solutions do not seem that well designed, lacking the elegance to have the mind-blowing effect they ought to have. We were never even told why the solution to the "harmony" riddle was what it was, and we were never told exactly how the cipher obtained by solving a subsequent riddle was used. It seems as if the authors, after having come up with one example of the ciphering approach (a laboriously clumsy example at that) just couldn't be bothered to come up with any more. The good-guy-bad-guy detective story part of the plot is weak and is very hastily resolved. Very disappointing.

Rating:
Summary: More sentimental than thrilling
Review: Erroneously described as this year's Da Vinci Code, The Rule of Four is an intropestive look at four classmates at Princeton, rather than an historical thriller. Caldwell and Thomason only use codes and ancient texts to tie the main characters together. The mystery regarding the codes is actually left unsolved and even ignored in the last chapters of the book.
More appropriately, The Rule of Four actually resembles The Class by Erich Segal. The Ivy League characters are based on common stereotypes (those invented by Segal), while the descriptions of Princeton are self-indulgent and add little to the plot. Princeton is made out to be the universal and greatest center of knowledge.
Also, the timeline of the story is unbelievable. The characters attend a formal ball, a lecture, meetings, and even encounter murders in less than two days. Thus, most of the plot is recounted via flashbacks.
It is not a coincidence that this book that took 6 years to write (as stated on the jacket and deemed the next Da Vinci Code has come out while people are still talking about Dan Brown's novel. However, it is definitely not so. The Rule of Four will appeal to many readers, but not to those to whom the descriptions suggest. For those looking for a page-turning, easy-read thriller, this is not the book. But for others who want a tale about relationships, the love of knowledge, with some action on the side, than The Rule of Four is the right read.

Rating:
Summary: a great read, greater if you have appreciation...
Review: ... for historical facts and thought-provoking historical theories. Also a good read for people whose lives are consumed by certain things. The point of view is from Tom Sullivan's, who is very much like the Hypnerotomachia's protagonist (Poliphilo), who suffers the same love-strife dilemma in this enchanting novel. Princeton is dramatized and written off in a bucolic-classical manner. Very much like the manner of writing that the Hypnerotomachia had. Caution though with mystery novels such as this one. There will always be parts of an unrealistic nature. But what is a good fiction novel if it cannot take you to places far from the real? This is not Dan Brown. This is a unique novel for the unlocking of the Hypnerotomachia and the Rule of Four, also needs to be unlocked with the use of the Hypnerotomachia. I give this one the freshly picked laurels from the garden.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Read
Review: As others have pointed out, this is not The Da Vinci Code. The main character is a Princeton student whose father died trying to get to the bottom of a complex manuscript, Renaissance no less. More like Raiders of the Lost Ark than "Code" this book was a quick easy, and fun read, with the exception of a few intense names. However, I did think it was better written than "Code" and that the characters were well developed and well thought out. You decide. Highly recommended.

Also recommended: Good Grief by Lolly Winston, McCrae's BARK OF THE DOGWOOD, He Never Called Again by Rose Quintiliano

Rating:
Summary: similar but different than Da Vinci Code
Review: This suspense thriller compares favorably with "Da Vinci Code" and in some ways is better. it too involves a puzzle that becomes an obsession to solve, a code that needs to be cracked, in this case concerning an old medieval manuscript that holds the keys to a buried treasure. Four fictional Princeton students stick their noses into this real-life mystery and inevitably find their lives in danger as a result. In this intricately plotted, occasionally challenging and hard to follow tale, there are also pleasing subplots, including a love-story and glances into the academic life of young people.

David Rehak
author of "Love and Madness"

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing, could have been much better
Review: I love this type of book and went out to buy it immediately given the comparisons of it to Name of the Rose and Da Vinci Code. Unfortunately, the flaws in the execution of what could have been a fabulous plot left me very disappointed. The biggest problem with the book is that almost all the action takes place in one night and day, artificially limiting the setting to the Princeton campus and creating an unbelievable timeline. I kept stepping back from the book, thinking that it was impossible for all the action to take place in that time period (from steam tunnel escapades to black tie dances). The time frame also forced the writers to deal with too much of the plot development in flashback, weakening the suspense which might have been created by the timeline and creating confusion for me over what was happening and when. It didn't help that the characters all had simple (WASPish?) names like Bill which made them hard to tell apart.

Had the characters been more sympathetic or appealing, the writers might have been able to carry the book despite its problems. Indeed, some of them seemed created merely to move the plot along.

Some scenes, too, seem created because the writers self-indulgently thought them so cool that you as a reader would find them cool as well. For example, a good deal of action takes place in the pitch black of the steam tunnels beneath Princeton despite the obvious problems for the reader in following action in a maze in the dark. Perhaps two better writers might have been able to carry off this setting, but these two do not.

It's hard not to believe that hype (and Ivy League connections) haven't gotten this book farther than it would otherwise have gotten.

Rating:
Summary: Unspellable, but very good
Review: So this is a book about a book, in which students run around in under ground tunnels, while the book they are researching also contains under ground tunnels. There is a lot of this kind of symbolic parallelism between the story of the friends @ Princeton and the mysterious book they are trying to crack. I'm not sure I even got all the levels of parallels. Nevertheless, this was definitely worth my time. I'm tired of books that waste my time with lame prose and half baked ideas. Give me something to chew on! And this one did that. Thanks, Caldwell and Thomson, for some truth in advertising...